3.7 billion euro turnover combined

It is not a surprise the board green-lit the merger: Hein Deprez controls all three companies and the merger should give the resulting company far more commercial power. Combined the companies represent a 3.7 billion euro turnover, spread over different markets: Greenyard focuses on frozen vegetables, Univeg on fresh vegetables and Peatinvest on substrate cultivation for fruit and vegetables.

The merger proposal entails that Univeg and Peatinvest will both be merged into Greenyard Foods, while shareholders for both companies will get 25.5 million new shares in the listed enterprise, being Greenyard Foods. In total, once the merger is completed, 44.4 million share will be available.

Deprez and Gimv sell part of shares

Greenyard Foods' current shareholders will keep 42.5 % of the shares, while Univeg's shareholders control 49.6 % and Peatinvest's shareholders 7.9 %. When all is said and done, Hein Deprez and his sister Veerle will have substantially increased their hold on the company.

To increase the freely available shares which are not controlled by the fixed shareholders, Deprez Holding and GimV-XL will sell off some shares to other investors through private placement.

During a Greenyard Foods extraordinary general meeting of stockholders, the merger will still need to be approved, while the European antitrust authority will also have to give its ruling, but the expectation is that everything should be finalized by the summer.